The 1st German M. E. Church (Church of All Nations) 48 St. Mark's Pl.

 

48 St. Mark's Place originally would have been similar to the house to the left. photograph by the author

The recently built Greek Revival-style house at 48 St. Mark's Place was home to cotton broker Charles Easton in 1842 when his expensive pet ran off.  He advertised in the New York Herald on November 26, "if the finder of a small white Italian Gray Hound, with a dark mark on her back and yellow collar, will send the same to No. 48 St. Mark's Place, a suitable reward will be paid."

Easton's new home sat within a refined neighborhood.  Three-and-a-half stories tall and three bays wide, its sheer size reflected the financial status of its residents.  The elaborate wrought iron stoop railings were an expensive touch.

Easton's dog was not the last item he would lose.  On July 19, 1852, he advertised, "Lost--In one of the small cars, at 11-1/2 to 12 o'clock, between 8th and 27th sts., on the 15th, a Pocket-book containing a sum in gold and silver.  The finder will be compensated, and will receive the thanks of the owner, by leaving it at No. 48 St. Mark's-place."  And two years later, on March 13, 1854, an ad in the New-York Tribune read, "Lost--Thursday afternoon, a dark colored canary, of the long breed.  The finder, by leaving it at No. 48 St. Mark's-place, will be suitably rewarded."

Interestingly, the following year Charles Easton moved next door to 46 St. Mark's Place.  Although their furnishings were only a decade old and could be easily moved next door, the family held an auction on June 6, 1855.  (Completely restarting in a new location was common at the time.)  The items reflected the Eastons' high end lifestyle.  They included "a fine rosewood Piano-Forte, by one of the most celebrated makers," "suites in crimson and maroon brocatelles," bronze and ormolu clocks, rosewood etageres, and "a superb marble figure of the Madonna of Tenerani."

A week later, an announcement in the New-York Tribune offered, "House No. 48 St. Marks-place to Let--Possession by first July.  Inquire of Charles Easton, No. 46 St. Marks-place."

The initial tenant was Gustave Schepff, a merchant.  He and his family remained through 1857.  They were followed by attorney Jonathan Miller and his wife, Sarah R., in 1858.  Sarah left in 1860, following Jonathan's death.  The Freeman family next moved in.  George H. and George W. Freeman operated a produce business in the Fulton Market.  The family remained through 1862.

Finally, starting in 1863, the house had relatively long-term residents in the Billinge family.  William S. Billinge was a partner in  the tea firm Billinge Boies & Co. on Vesey Street.  By 1868, Henry W. Billinge had joined the business.  

   

Like the Eastons had done, when the Billinge family left in the spring of 1871, they auctioned their household goods.  Included in the announcement were, "rare oil paintings and engravings, silver plate and glassware," "rosewood parlor suits, in crimson figured brocatel," and "rosewood dressing bureaus, with French plate glass."

The house next became home to Ernest Steiger, who listed his profession in 1871 as a "German news agent."  The family took in two renters that year, attorney Ebenezer D. Gilbert and Otto Khrebiel, an artist.  

The family had barely moved in before Steiger was selected to sit on a grand jury.  On November 24, 1871, the New York Herald editorialized, "Ernst [sic] Stiger [sic], of 48 St. Mark's place, is to be relied upon, we hope, to perform his full duty as one of the grand jurors in indicting the plunderers of the city treasury."

The Steigers continued to take in a few renters over the years and in 1877 advertised, "To Let--To a single gentleman, a handsomely furnished front Parlor, with adjoining hall Room on second floor, in a private German family."

Henry Bardes purchased 48 St. Mark's Place in 1881.  He immediately hired German-born architect Charles Sturzkober to raise the short attic level to a full fourth floor.  His plans described "alteration for tenement."  The renovations cost Bardes the equivalent of $158,000 in 2025.

Bardes's tenant list reflected the now overwhelmingly German population of the district.  Gustav Schmidt lived here in August 1882 when he was arrested in a raid on a policy shop (an illegal gambling den).  Jeweler Joseph Hamerschlag rented rooms here the following year.

Just three years after purchasing the property, Henry Bardes died.  His heirs sold 48 St. Mark's Place in April 1884 to the well-rounded Dr. Henry Krollpfeiffer and his wife, the former Frederica Merz.

Born in Germany in 1849 Henry Krollpfeiffer began practicing medicine in New York City in 1875.  He and Frederica (known as Frida) were married in 1881.  The couple had four children, Freda, born in 1883; Henry George, born the following year; Elsa Emma, in 1889; and Charles William Frederick, who arrived in 1894.

Dr. Krollpfeiffer was highly involved in the community and served as the Chairman of the Trustee's Committee on Discipline of the New York Public Schools.  His staunch demand for the obeying of rules and his religious views (or lack of them) clashed in the spring of 1896.

Gustav Bittner had three children enrolled in Public School 22.  The school's morning exercises began with a short reading from the Bible and the repetition of the Lord's Prayer.  Bittner, who was a book peddler, was an agnostic and on April 31 informed the principal "that he did not wish his children to be compelled to join in the worship of an 'unseen phantom,'" as reported in The Sun.  The issue landed on the desk of Henry Krollpfeiffer.  His demand for rules and regulations trumped his religious views and he decided, in part:

Though I am an agnostic myself I believe in the opening exercises.  They certainly are moral and can't corrupt anybody...Children must keep order and conform to school rules in their behavior at prayers as much as at recitations.

Krollpfeiffer was also the president of the Centennial Bowling Club.  On April 18, 1896, the club won a bowling tournament among 12 clubs, winning a cup valued at $1,600.  That night the Centennial Bowling Club hosted a banquet at Liederkranz Hall.  Afterward, when Krollpfeiffer examined the bill, he accused waiter Jacob Kochmann of "robbing him" of $42--an overcharge of the champagne consumed.

Dr. Krollpfeiffer and Kochmann faced in court on April 30.  The waiter was represented by a woman lawyer, Rosalie Loew.  Krollpfeiffer was assuredly confident in winning his case.  Female attorneys were highly unusual at the time and the current gender discrimination presumed Loew was incompetent.  Additionally, this would be her first appearance in a courtroom.

As it turned out, Rosalie Loew was masterful.  She asked Krollpfeiffer if he had counted the empty bottles.  He had.  Then she said, while admitting she had never attended a function like this, she assumed "they must be very convivial."  She asked Krollpfeiffer if he had counted any broken bottles.  Forced to admit that he had not, the self-assured doctor was humiliated by the rookie attorney.

The physician who described himself as an agnostic in 1896 had decidedly had a change of heart before the turn of the century.  On October 20, 1900, the New York Tribune reported, "The four story and basement brick dwelling house No. 48 St. Mark's Place, will be altered into a church and dwelling house for the Rev. Henry Krollpfeiffer, pastor of the First German Methodist Episcopal Church.  The basement and first floor will be used for church purposes, and the upper part as a dwelling house for the pastor."

The First German Methodist Episcopal Church was incorporated in 1842.  The congregation had worshiped at 175 Second Avenue since then.  The services were solely conducted in German.

On the same day of The Times article, the Record & Guide noted that architect John Boese had filed plans for the renovations.  They included new steel beams and girders, necessary to create a worship space in the former residence.  Boese replaced the parlor openings with a triptych stained-glass window and added a neo-Gothic terra cotta frieze and entrance frame.  The upper floors were given a veneer of brick, the second floor windows replaced with multi-paned casements, and trefoil-filled terra cotta arches placed over the top floor windows.  The cornice was removed, replaced with a terra cotta faced gable and parapet.

Boese's second floor casements and superb original Greek Revival stoop railings survived in 1941.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Henry Krollpfeiffer died on April 12, 1911 and the property was transferred to the East German Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Dochtermann family had shared the upper floors with the Krollpfeiffers since, at least, 1908.  Charles Dochtermann Sr. and his sons, Charles Jr. and Paul, incorporated the Dochtermann Realty Company that year.  In 1913, the sons, now including Frederick, incorporated the Dochtermann Storage Warehouse Company.

Charles Dochtermann, Sr. died at the age of 73 on November 18, 1917.  Expectedly, his funeral on November 21 was held in the First German M. E. Church.

The terra cotta panel announcing the name of the First German M. E. Church was still exposed when this photograph was taken by Jim Henderson on January 15, 2011

A horrific incident occurred early on the morning of November 20, 1920.  The Dochtermann Storage Warehouse was on East 10th Street.  A Coney Island amusement company was temporarily storing a "collection of animals" there, according to the New York Herald.  That morning one of Charles Dochtermann's watchmen called him at home to tell him that the animals were causing "a disturbance" and that the neighborhood around the warehouse "was echoing to their roars."

What Charles Dochtermann obviously did not know when he went to the warehouse was that at least one of the dangerous animals had escaped.  The New York Herald reported, "Opening the doors against the protests of the watchman, he stepped inside, and, raising an electric torch, started to inspect the place."  Suddenly, a leopard pounced from the darkness, clawing and biting at Dochtermann's shoulders.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Doctermann [sic] fought the beast with his bare hands for several minutes, and then the watchman called in a man from the street."

They prodded the cat with iron poles.  "Doctermann [sic], mortally wounded and weakened from loss of blood, was trying to jam his arm down the beast's throat."  Eventually the two men managed to drive the cat from Dochtermann, who was now "prostrate and senseless," according to the New-York Tribune.  He died at Bellevue Hospital.

The next morning, newspapers reported that Dochtermann had died from leprosy, causing a temporary panic in the neighborhood.  Hearing that a leopard had caused Dochtermann's death and considering that a slim possibility, a reporter assumed the he misheard "leprosy" as "leopard."  The reports were corrected a week later.  Dochtermann's funeral was held in the St. Mark's Place church on November 30.

In 1921, John H. Bachmeler was appointed treasurer of the First German M. E. Church.  He held the position until the early part of 1930.  About a year-and-a-half later, on October 20, 1931, he was arrested.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle explained, "it is said shortages of at least $60,000 have been unearthed in an accountant's survey" of the church's books.

On June 16, 1975, The New York Times reported, "The First German United Methodist Church, at 48 St. Marks Place, yesterday ended 133 years of worship in the German language on Manhattan's Lower East Side."  Although the church's finances were stable, according to the pastor, Rev. John E. Swords, "only two active members now live in the neighborhood, which was once German but is now mainly Spanish-speaking and Ukrainian."  The other 65 congregants lived elsewhere in the city or in the suburbs, said the article.

The church was next shared by the Manhattan Central United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church of All Nations (Iglesia Metodista Unida Todas la Nacionas).  Importantly, the Center for Immigrants Rights shared the building as early as 1987.

photograph by Beyond My Ken

More recently the vintage structure became home to The Church of the Village, followed by Jubilee Mission Center.